Chitra Divakaruni loves to have you discuss her books in your book club, and she loves joining such discussions, if time permits. Please email her with details of your book club meetings at chitra.divakaruni.list@gmail.com. You can also email her in advance with book-related questions that your group is curious about. And please email her a photo of your book club with her book! She would be delighted to see all of you and to put your bookclub’s photo on her website/social media.
To request an in-person or virtual speaking engagement in the U.S., please contact Christie Hinrichs, or view Divakaruni’s SPEAKING PROFILE. To request an in-person or virtual speaking engagement, or for film options in India, contact Sidharth Jain, s@thestoryink.com.
Divakaruni’s newest novel, Independence, is an international bestseller and already a book-club favorite. This Book of the Month pick is the dramatic tale of three sisters swept into India’s Freedom Movement in the 1940s, and their unbreakable bond in the face of conflicting career, love and family responsibilities.
When the partition of India is officially decided, a drastic—and dangerous—change is in the air. India is now for Hindus, Pakistan for Muslims. The sisters find themselves separated and fear for themselves—and for each other.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni outdoes herself with this deeply moving story of sisterhood and courage, painting an account of India’s independence, simultaneously exhilarating and devastating, that will make any reader—new or old—a devoted fan.The novel has been compared to Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women. Publisher’s Weekly calls it “dazzling. . . a must-read.”
A longer description of Independence, along with reviews, is here.
The Last Queen, now in paperback, is the exquisite love story of a king and a commoner, a cautionary tale about loyalty and betrayal, and a powerful parable of the indestructible bond between mother and child. Divakaruni’s award-winning novel about Maharani Jindan, who fought the British until her last breath, brings alive one of the most fearless women of nineteenth century India, an inspiration for women everywhere. This novel is a great fit for readers who love history, adventure, and tales of love, courage and sacrifice with women at their center.
A longer description of The Last Queen, along with reviews, is here.
Divakaruni’s international bestseller novel, Oleander Girl, now in paperback, follows a young Indian woman as she journeys across post 9/11 USA in search of the father whose existence was kept secret from her all her life. Set in 2002, in the fraught world of post 9/11 America and in an India torn apart by the Godhra Riots, Oleander Girl is an examination of the consequences of intolerance and the cost of desire.
A longer description of Oleander Girl, along with reviews, is here.
Here is a link to a DISCUSSION GUIDE.
A beautiful, “deeply affecting” (Kirkus Reviews) novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of Sister of My Heart and The Mistress of Spices about three generations of mothers and daughters who must discover their greatest source of strength in one another.
Sweeping across the twentieth century, from the countryside of Bengal, India, to the streets of Houston, Texas, Before We Visit the Goddess takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the lives of three unforgettable women: Sabitri, Bela, and Tara.
Told through a sparkling symphony of voices—those of the women themselves and the men who loved them—Before We Visit the Goddess captures the gorgeous complexity of these multi-generational and transcontinental relationships, showing the deep threads of love and hope and bravery that define a family and a life.
A longer description of Before We Visit the Goddess, along with reviews, is here.
"One Amazing Thing collapses the walls dividing characters and cultures; what endures is a chorus of voices in one single room." —Jhumpa Lahiri
CHOSEN FOR 35+ CITY-WIDE AND CAMPUS-WIDE READS.
Late afternoon in a visa office in an unnamed American city. Most customers and office workers have come and gone; only nine people remain. A punky teenager with an unexpected gift. An upper-class Caucasian couple whose relationship is disintegrating. A young Muslim-American man struggling with the fallout of 9/11. A graduate student haunted by a question about love. An African-American ex-soldier searching for redemption. A Chinese grandmother with a secret past. And two visa office workers on the verge of an adulterous affair.
When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull, trapping these nine people together, they struggle to survive. There's little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them to bear, the graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, "one amazing thing" from their lives, which they have never told anyone before. And as their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself.
A longer description of One Amazing Thing, along with reviews and an excerpt, is here.
Here is a link to a DISCUSSION GUIDE for this bestseller.
Many of Chitra Divakaruni's earlier novels, such as the National Bestseller Sister of My Heart, the award-winning bestseller Mistress of Spices, which has been made into a film, and The Palace of Illusions, which has been taught at over 100 colleges and has been optioned for a movie, are perennial book club favorites in USA and abroad. Many, such as One Amazing Thing, continue to be chosen as city-wide reads and campus-wide reads across America.
For more information on all of Divakaruni’s books, including excerpts, reviews and Reading Group Guides, please go to BOOKS.
AGENTS: To request an in-person or virtual speaking engagement in the U.S., please contact Christie Hinrichs at Authors Unbound, or view Divakaruni’s SPEAKING PROFILE. To request an in-person or virtual speaking engagement, or for film options in India, contact Sidharth Jain, s@thestoryink.com. Divakaruni’s literary agency is The Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. Contact: elise@dijkstraagency.com. For U.S. film options, or publication in countries other than USA, contact andrea@dijkstraagency.com.
